Per our tradition, we met Granny and Grumps at Highcliff State Park for Jack’s birthday. This year was chillier than most, but luckily we avoided most of the rain that was in the area. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days, about 55 degrees and mostly sunny. We hiked for miles around the park, stopped for snacks and breaks and were back to the campsite for late lunches both days.

One of Jack’s recent school projects was to draw/design a bridge and then construct it out of recyclables. The story presented was about gnomes trying to get to their homes, but they had to cross the lake to get there. The bridge had to hold three crayons and be at least one crayon wide. Jack’s held A LOT more than three crayons, but he forgot how many. His teacher took a picture of his bridge at school.

The second photo is of his land formations which they built out of clay.

Jack came home from school one day excited to tell me that he was going to be a “rapper” in the 2nd grade musical. He handed me the sheet of what he would need to wear, along with a list of the parts. I’m not exactly sure if he has a solo, he is a part of the “meteor soloist and rappers”. Other than the list, he’s been pretty secretive about it. The program is called “Spaced Out” and is about space, including the 9 planets, sun, moon, facts about the history and discoveries in space and the hope for a bright future. Some of the speaking parts include: Carl Sagan, Copernicus, Aristotle, Sally Ride, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Tsiolkovsky, Will Rogers, and President Kennedy. Otherwise the kids are a planet, sun, moon, star, astronaut or alien.

He was very adamant that besides wearing black, he would need some big chains for his neck and a flashy belt. June and I went to Goodwill to see what we could do. Needless to say, he loved what we found for him.

Last night we went to the high school auditorium to see Jack’s first grade musical “NUTS!” Jack was a bear and had a speaking part, which we all had memorized by the time the show rolled around, as he’s been practicing it for weeks. It was a really good show and the girls really enjoyed it. June was mimicking all the hand motions the kids were doing on stage, so she kept herself very busy. Jacey loved the disco ball on the ceiling that they used during the “rain storm” dance/song.

On May 15, I went with Jack’s class to the Heckrodt Wetland Reserve. We left school at 8:30 am with everyone standing in line with their buddy. Jack was my buddy of course, and we had to keep an eye on the buddy group ahead of us.

At Heckrodt we toured the nature center and saw all kinds of fish, frogs, and turtles. Our nature guide took us out on the boardwalk trails through the wetlands and stopped at some learning stations along the way. We learned that wetlands need the right ingredients to form, just like chocolate chip cookies. And wow, the kids knew all the ingredients to chocolate chip cookies!

The pond was the last stop where we learned how wetlands help filter the water. Jack even got to be part of the demonstration.

We loaded back up on the bus and the kids were back to school for lunch. Everyone was so well behaved and excited and funny, I really had a good time!

Jack earned a new belt in karate. He was so excited we were all going to watch his class and see him get his new belt. He kept looking over at us the entire class to make sure we were watching when it was his turn to kick or punch. Even June and Jacey enjoyed watching all the action!

Today was Career Day at school, so Jack had to wear an outfit to represent what he wants to be when he grows up. When we started talking about it, he said he wanted to be a “power fixer guy.” So we discussed what a guy like that would wear. He thought he would need “a shiny vest, with some sort of picture on the front to show where he worked, work gloves (but he couldn’t wear them or else he couldn’t write at school), a hard hat (but you can’t wear hats to school), so maybe he could just borrow my shiny vest and we could make a picture on the front, and wear pants with a lot of pockets.”

He asked me to cut out a lightning bolt like on his superhero cape because that was electricity and then he drew some power lines and power poles and a house getting electricity.

Jack had a “Knowledge-a-thon” this week at school. He had to answer 50 questions out of 53 correct in order to earn a medal. We have been quizzing him for a couple of weeks now, to the point where even Jacey could answer most of the questions correctly.

Today was Jack’s first day of kindergarten! He was so excited to go this morning, he was up and dressed by 6:10 am. We took our obligatory first day photos, you can see last years photos here.

I didn’t have any tears until Jacey said, “Jack I’m really going to miss you today. I don’t know who will play with me. I’ll be so sad and lonely.” Jack gave her a big hug and a kiss and said, “I’ll miss you too Jacey, you are my best friend but I’ll be home after nap to play with you.” My mom said I should put these pictures on the fridge to remind them that they do love each other the next time they are fighting.

We walked Jack down the street to the “bus stop” and waited for the bus. We could see it coming around the corner and Jack said, “Quick, give me a kiss and a hug so I can be all ready to get on!” He hopped on, said hello to the bus driver and found his seat. He waved to us as the bus pulled away… and so did all the other kids on the bus.

Then Jacey, June and I took our morning walk around the block. We made it back in time to get down to the basement for a terrible storm that rumbled through! Unfortunately, Jack’s only fear about school was what would happen if there was thunder and lightning while he was at school. I’ll be anxious to see what his class did when the weather sirens went off today! I guess it’s good he had to get through his only fear on the first day, the rest should be smooth sailing.